Apologia is a Christ-centered, award-winning homeschool curriculum. Their mission is to help homeschoolers learn, live, and defend their faith through their curriculum.
Overview
Exploring Creation with Marine Biology is a high school level, college-prep, lab science (Biology is a prerequisite) yet it is also captivating to teens that are not majoring in science. The course covers a complex topic using a conversational style that is engaging for students. Parents will appreciate that it can be completely student-led.
Apologia offers several ‘add-on’ components to the course, including a DVD, tests, and solutions, and a student notebook to complement the textbook. We used the text, test booklet, and the notebook, which we found indispensable. It offers a daily schedule which was easy to follow and includes a chart for grades. There are pages for notes, definitions, study guide questions, an experiment and lab report section, and space for the ‘On Your Own’ questions found throughout the text. The test manual includes solutions for the study guides, a test and solutions for each module, and quarterly tests.
The course contains 16 modules, intended to be completed in 34 weeks using the lesson plan schedule of 45 minutes per day, 5 days a week. One module with lab experiments and tests should be completed every 2 weeks.
*Our daughter found this pace quite relaxed and often would complete 2 lessons in 1 day. After completing the study guide for a module, she would start the next module, while studying for the test of the previous module. She completed the course in approximately 28 weeks.
The Pros and Cons
Pros included the easy-to-read delivery and the abundance of information on fascinating sea creatures. She also appreciated that while the focus of the course is on creationism, other viewpoints were presented as well for a balanced view of both sides. Cons were the large amount of time spent on microscopic creatures (not her personal favorite topic) and she found that often the study guide was not an accurate representation of the test questions.
Final Thoughts
While not considering herself a science kind of kid, our daughter really dove into this course (water, get it?…) We often heard her narrating fascinating tidbits at the dinner table, showing that she absorbed a lot of detailed information without the course being overly time-consuming. The ‘On Your Own’ questions were a great way to explore new knowledge on a deeper level, instead of just repeating learned facts and she liked that the author wrote for a high school audience in a way that was not overwhelming but was also not condescending.
After going through all of the elementary Apologia science courses as well as several high school courses, we are excited to continue exploring creation!
Other Apologia Titles for Highschool Science:
Exploring Creation with General Science
Exploring Creation with Biology
Exploring Creation with Physical Science
Exploring Creation with Chemistry
Exploring Creation with Physics
Exploring Creation with Advanced Biology
Exploring Creation with Advanced Physics
Julia lives in Langley, BC with her husband and four children. Their adventures include traveling as The Springmans, a family band. Yes, that means that Julia homeschools on the road! This last year has made them available online for everyone to enjoy. Visit their Facebook page for live concerts, and follow Ryan, Sarah and Jacob as they search for treasure in the wilds.
